{"id":9875,"date":"2012-12-31T16:00:32","date_gmt":"2012-12-31T21:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=9875"},"modified":"2012-12-31T16:00:37","modified_gmt":"2012-12-31T21:00:37","slug":"in-media-rest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=9875","title":{"rendered":"In media rest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Okay, then. I read <a href=\"http:\/\/www.librarything.com\/catalog\/unrealfred&amp;tag=Read+in+2012\">a few books<\/a> this year, 136 at the current (and unlikely to change) count. Personal favorites included:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><i>Lord of Light<\/i> by Roger Zelazny<\/li>\n<li><i>The Tiger&#8217;s Wife<\/i> by T\u00c3\u00a9a Obreht\n<li><i>The Brief Wondrous Life<\/i> of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz<\/li>\n<li><i>Taft<\/i> by Ann Patchett<\/li>\n<li><i>The Talented Mr. Ripley<\/i> by Patricia Highsmith<\/li>\n<li><i>The Last Policeman<\/i> by Ben H. Winters<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>But it was a pretty ordinary year, actually. There were a few disappointments, <i>Embassytown<\/i> by China Mi\u00c3\u00a9ville and <i>Her Fearful Symmetry<\/i> by Audrey Niffenegger chief among them, and in any year when I read such a weird mix of comics, there were bound to be a few there as well. (I&#8217;m looking at you particularly hard, end of run on <i>Exiles<\/i>.)<\/p>\n<p>I didn&#8217;t <i>re<\/i>-read as much as I&#8217;d hoped to, only two books instead of the hoped-for five or six. And one of those, Stephen King&#8217;s <i>It<\/i>, was via audio book. But that&#8217;s two more than last year, and I found a lot of value in revisiting those two books. (Particularly <i>It<\/i>, although <i>Watership Down<\/i> was also quite lovely.) I&#8217;m not yet sure <i>what<\/i> I&#8217;m going to re-read in 2013, but I think it&#8217;s an experiment worth continuing.<\/p>\n<p>I also watched <a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/list\/Bi4Y2M2UCjI\/\">several movies<\/a> in 2012, not least of all nearly all of the &#8220;official&#8221; James Bond movies. Again, it was probably a pretty ordinary year, but a few personal favorites, in no order except the order seen:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><i>Drones<\/i><\/li>\n<li><i>Drive<\/i><\/li>\n<li><i>The Innkeepers<\/i><\/li>\n<li><i>The Cabin in the Woods<\/i><\/li>\n<li><i>The Avengers<\/i><\/li>\n<li><i>Moonrise Kingdom<\/i><\/li>\n<li><i>Sleepwalk With Me<\/i><\/li>\n<li><i>Skyfall<\/i><\/li>\n<li><i>Beasts of the Southern Wild<\/i><\/li>\n<li><i>The Descendants<\/i><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Movies that turned out to be significantly better than I expected? <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><i>Underworld<\/i> &#8212; though I can&#8217;t say the same for the sequel<\/li>\n<li><i>John Carter<\/i> &#8212; which I need to revisit, but which I think was sadly under-rated, this year&#8217;s <i>Scott Pilgrim<\/i><\/li>\n<li><i>Fast Five<\/i> &#8212; <i>so<\/i> ridiculous, and some of it obviously just for fans of the series, but surprisingly fun<\/li>\n<li><i>Predators<\/i> &#8212; not, you know, <i>great<\/i>, but it has its moments<\/li>\n<li><i>The Amazing Spider-Man<\/i> &#8212; we hardly needed another reboot or origin story, much less one like this, but Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone are good together<\/li>\n<li><i>Knight and Day<\/i> &#8212; so are Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. It&#8217;s not brilliant, but the chemistry works.<\/li>\n<li><i>Moonrise Kingdom<\/i> &#8212; I had reservations going into it, since I like Wes Anderson but am not a part of the cult. This is definitely the Wes-Anderson-iest of his movies, but for all that it&#8217;s rather delightful.<\/li>\n<li><i>The Bourne Legacy<\/i> &#8212; again, I&#8217;m not sure this is a series that really <i>needed<\/i> continuing, but I liked Jeremy Renner and Rachel Weisz here.<\/li>\n<li><i>Ruby Sparks<\/i> &#8212; it&#8217;s not a perfect movie, but it takes what could have been a tired premise and does some very interesting things with it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And then there are the Bond movies, but there I feel like I&#8217;m grading on a curve. Some of them are pretty dreadful (<i>The Man With the Golden Gun<\/i>), and others are good mostly by comparison (<i>Moonraker<\/i>).<\/p>\n<p>Biggest disappointments?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><i>Them<\/i> (<i>Ils<\/i>)<\/li>\n<li><i>Tiny Furniture<\/i><\/li>\n<li><i>Prometheus<\/i><\/li>\n<li><i>Underworld: Evolution<\/i><\/li>\n<li><i>Lockout<\/i><\/li>\n<li><i>Dawn of the Dead<\/i> (the remake)<\/li>\n<li><i>Ghost Rider<\/i><\/li>\n<li><i>Paranormal Activity 2<\/i> &#8212; although I&#8217;m almost weirdly <i>glad<\/i> this was disappointing<\/li>\n<li><i>Tower Heist<\/i><\/li>\n<li><i>V\/H\/S<\/i><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A few of those I probably could have predicted going in. The biggest <i>unexpected<\/i> disappointment was <i>Prometheus<\/i>, which was easily one of my least favorite movies of the year. It&#8217;s simply gorgeous to look at it, and very reminiscent of the first two <i>Alien<\/i> movies &#8212; sometimes even in good ways &#8212; but <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?feature=player_embedded&amp;v=-x1YuvUQFJ0\">it&#8217;s <i>full<\/i> of questions and plot holes<\/a>. I just did not like it.<\/p>\n<p>And then, finally, there was music. I&#8217;m actually surprised to see tht nine out the twenty-four songs on my &#8220;best of the year&#8221; mix are actually <i>from<\/i> this year, while another eight were released in 2011. (The rest are a jumble, going back from 2008 to 1989.)<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>&#8220;Love Makes All the Other Worlds Go Round&#8221; by Dan Bern &amp; Common Rotation<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Little Black Submarines&#8221; by the Black Keys<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Sugar&#8221; by the Horrible Crowes<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Manchester&#8221; by Kishi Bashi<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Houdini&#8221; by Foster the People<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;We Are Young&#8221; by Fun (feat. Janelle Mon\u00c3\u00a1e)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Little Talks&#8221; by Of Monsters and Men<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;New Ceremony&#8221; by Dry the River<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;I Love It&#8221; by Icona Pop<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Let&#8217;s Get the Show on the Road&#8221; by the Michael Stanley Band<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;When I Write the Book&#8221; by Nick Lowe<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Pursuit of Happiness&#8221; by Lissie<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Abide With Me&#8221; by Emeli Sand\u00c3\u00a9<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Now&#8221; by Mates of State<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;It&#8217;s Time&#8221; by Imagine Dragons<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Keep Me in Your Heart&#8221; by Warren Zevon<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;American Tune&#8221; by Paul Simon<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Wheel Inside the Wheel&#8221; by Mary Gauthier<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Bleed Like Me&#8221; by Garbage<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Mountains&#8221; by Radical Face<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Avalanches (Culla&#8217;s Song)&#8221; by A Fine Frenzy<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Emmylou&#8221; by First Aid Kit<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Revolution&#8221; by Dr. John<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Thrift Shop&#8221; by Macklemore &amp; Ryan Lewis (feat. Wanz)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Some of those are a little NSFW, for those of you who received a copy of the mix from me. (If you&#8217;d <i>like<\/i> a copy and didn&#8217;t get one, just ask.) <\/p>\n<p>And, of course, there&#8217;s my December mix, which is itself almost as many songs as the best of 2012:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>&#8220;What Makes a Good Man?&#8221; by the Heavy<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Revolution&#8221; by Dr. John<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Thrift Shop&#8221; by Macklemore &amp; Ryan Lewis (feat. Wanz)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Hit Me&#8221; by Mystikal<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Summer of &#8217;93&#8221; by the Good Graces<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Emmylou&#8221; by First Aid Kit<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Myth&#8221; by Beach House<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Weeping Pilgrim&#8221; by Elvis Perkins<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Oh My My&#8221; by Jill Barber<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Human of the Year&#8221; by Regina Spektor<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Maybe Next Year (X-Mas Song)&#8221; by Meiko<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;White Knuckles&#8221; by OK Go<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Ca plane pour moi&#8221; by Plastic Bertrand<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Same Love&#8221; by Macklemore &amp; Ryan Lewis (feat. Mary Lambert)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;We Are the Art&#8221; by Nico Vega<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Next to Me&#8221; by Emeli Sand\u00c3\u00a9<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;The John Wayne&#8221; by Little Green Cars<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>And that was a year in media, minus of course TV shows, podcasts, the internet, and bits and bobs here and there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Okay, then. I read a few books this year, 136 at the current (and unlikely to change) count. Personal favorites included: Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny The Tiger&#8217;s Wife by T\u00c3\u00a9a Obreht The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz Taft by Ann Patchett The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith The &#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=9875\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[16,8,14,15],"class_list":["post-9875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-books","tag-monthly-mix","tag-movies","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9875"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9875\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}